The invention relates generally to computer data storage, and more particularly to a virtual file system interface for communicating changes related to archived data in a data storage system.
A data archive system typically stores data objects as files. In some cases, the archived files may be further processed to allow additional data processing functions to be performed on the archived data. For example, the archived files may be indexed to enable a search engine to search for desired information in certain fields of the archived data or to migrate the archived data to a lower-cost storage tier. Some data archive systems, such as IBM Information Archive®, may allow information concerning the archived data to be added to each file and provide mechanisms for updating such information even though the file data itself cannot be updated.
When information related to an archived file is changed, the archived file itself may need to be re-indexed because certain control data associated with the archived data might also have changed. Such an indexing and re-indexing of the archived data file may lead to error conditions that prevent the re-indexing from being completed successfully.
It is desirable to have an efficient mechanism for communicating changes related to data archived in a data storage system to applications that access the archived data.